1. Field of The Invention
Applicant's invention relates to apparatuses used to achieve or maintain physical fitness and more particularly to devices having forcibly yieldable components against which users apply force to facilitate muscular development and augmentation.
2. Background Information
The achievement and maintenance of physical fitness is, in its countless forms, a multi-billion dollar industry in the United States. While free weights and other gym-type physical fitness equipment appeared in the fitness industry scene many many years ago, a fairly recent niche in this industry relates to fitness equipment which is practical, yet highly effective for use in the home, or even away from home (such as for business travelers).
The enormous success of products such as the NORDIC TRACK and SOLO FLEX machines in the home fitness market is evidence of consumer demand for fitness apparatuses, at least for use in the home environment. A problem with machines such as these, however, relates to cost. At prices ranging from hundreds to thousands of dollars for each piece of equipment, products such as the NORDIC TRACK and SOLO FLEX machines are simply out of financial reach of most consumers.
Desires for fitness and health certainly are confined neither to persons who can afford expensive home fitness equipment nor to persons who are usually at home most mornings or evenings to use such machines. In part because of this, even the proliferation of fitness equipment such as the high-dollar, home-bound equipment such as mentioned before leaves available to competing vendors a huge market for relatively inexpensive, portable, yet effective fitness equipment.
The existence and extent of this latter market is evidenced by the high degree of success experienced by modestly-priced fitness products such as those marketed under the THIGH MASTER, BODY SLIDE, ABDOMINIZER and other now-familiar trademarks.
An attractive addition to the modestly priced, easily transported fitness equipment category of products is an exerciser which produces resistance by harnessing the rotational momentum of a turning flywheel. The flywheel exerciser includes two lengths of cord which pass respectively on either side of the flywheel's rotational axis. On either side of the flywheel, handles are affixed to the cord ends.
The device is used by initially rotating the flywheel while maintaining the handles in a relatively fixed orientation whereby the cords assume a highly twisted configuration. This tends to draw the handles closer together. The user then applies an expansive force to the cord segments by pulling in opposite directions on the two handles. Depending on the configuration of the handles, this can be done using the hands (in front or behind one's torso), one hand and one foot, etc. to exercise different muscle groups.
By applying expansive force to the handles of the flywheel exerciser, the cord segments unwind from their initial twisted configuration with an accompanying rotation of the flywheel and increase of spatial separation of the handles. Upon application of a sufficient extent and duration of force, the momentum of the flywheel effects a full unwinding of the cord segments and ultimately a re-winding to an opposite extreme to that at the initiation of the exercise routine. As a user continues to apply expansive force to the handles of the device, he or she sets up a reciprocating cycle of spatial contraction and expansion of the handles as the flywheel rotates to respectively wind and unwind the cords between oppositely directed extremes. The flywheel is ideally constructed of steel or another weight dense material. When at rest, the flywheel exhibits a significant degree of inertia which provides resistance to expansion of the handles during the unwinding phase of each cycle, and, when rotating, generates a substantial rotational momentum which, in turn, is translated into a significant force in opposition to the expansive forces applied by the user in resisting the rewinding phase of each cycle. This force against which the user moves the handles between fully contracted and expanded handle positions during use of the device serves to strengthen and condition whichever of the user's muscle groups as are utilized during the exercise regimen.
Flywheel exercisers of the prior art exhibit significant defects or deficiencies in their design and construction. Most such problems relate to the need of differing sized users to be able to adjust the length of the cord segments and thereby to adjust the outer limits of movement during exercise cycles. Remaining problems relate to difficulty of assembly and repair of the exercisers.
More specifically, the handles of prior known flywheel exercisers were not easily adjusted relative to the cord segments, but were connected to the cord segments using not easily disengaged knots, permanent clamps, etc. The increased labor involved in connecting such handles with the cord segments increased manufacturing expense. In addition, threading the cord segments through the flywheel cord holes was difficult and time intensive in prior art flywheel exercisers, thereby further increasing manufacturing costs.